1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a social network, more particularly to a method and apparatus for propagating a message in a social network that chooses users (nodes) having high propagation capabilities, in consideration of the connectivity and distribution probability of each user, to enable faster propagation of the message.
2. Description of the Related Art
The social network service (SNS) is being established as one of the most popular forms of media in the Internet generation since the advent of Web 2.0. A social network service provides an online platform that allows people to meet, interact, and form relationships. This new form of social interaction has led to the formation of various social networks online, as well as numerous social network services.
Such social networks, which have brought about several innovations to existing methods of communication, are generally operated globally and have members numbering into the hundred millions. For instance, Facebook, one of the most popular social network services worldwide, is said to have approximately 900 million members worldwide.
According to the related art, a search for members who have great influence in a social network may involve calculating the users' degree of influence by using the users' connectivity. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a method of calculating a user's degree of influence in a social network according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, suppose that A, B, C, and D are users in a social network, and suppose that e1, e2, e3, and e4 are relationships between the respective users. A conventional method may calculate the degree of influence of each user based only on the user's degree of connectivity. If a social network is formed as in FIG. 1, the conventional method may determine that user A is the most influential, as A has the most number of connections.
However, due to the characteristics of social networks, various other factors contribute to a user's influence, and determining a social network user's influence using only the user's degree of connectivity would not suitably reflect these other factors.